Why this country town wants to become the nation's sci-fi capital

But the universe had other things in mind.

On May 4 and 5, 2024, the town of Coonabarabran will hold its second Dark Sky Awakens Festival - a celebration of all things science fiction.

"We came up with this idea back in 2019 when all the regional areas were in drought and, and no one was visiting country areas... business was shutting up and no-one was spending any money anywhere," founding organiser Dave Hunter said.

"We were just trying to think of a way to get people from coastal city areas to come out and visit the country... So we thought let's have something fun and science fiction based."

On the surface science fiction may seem an odd fit for a small town in country NSW.

But Coonabarabran is the gateway to Australia's first Dark Sky Park, the Warrumbungle National Park, and home to the Siding Spring Observatory which has Australia's largest optical telescopes.

"In Coonabarabran we already have StarFest at the end of the year, which is very astronomy based, so we came up with the Dark Sky Awakens and centred it around Star Wars," Mr Hunter said.

"We chose Star Wars because it crosses so many genres and age groups and everything."

A theme in mind and a worthy ambition, the committee got together and started planning the first festival... for May 2020.

"You know the next bit of the story... you can see that coming," Mr Hunter said.

"We had made a lot of bookings, we'd paid deposits on so many things... then a pandemic we thought wasn't going to be very much ended up being way bigger than what we ever imagined.

"So we had to cancel that event in May 2020 and we watched to see what was happening and it seemed that May 2021 was going to be unlikely as well."

Eventually the first festival was able to be held in 2022, but at a much smaller scale than first planned. A David Bowie tribute and professional Star Wars cosplayers came to town and lightsaber workshops and laser tag competitions were held.

"By that stage in 2022, as a committee, it's really hard to pick yourself up several times around to keep things going," Mr Hunter said.

"And it was still a bit touchy at that time because Omicron was around and people weren't travelling because some people still had to isolate and weren't travelling as far.

"Then the committee collapsed a bit. Everyone was just spent and it was only myself and one other fellow who sort of stayed connected with it. We didn't manage to get organised for 2023."

But, with the help of the 2357 Development Group, the committee was able to get a bigger event together for 2024.

"This is our second actual event that we'll be hosting and we've expanded the concept now so we're not just focusing on Star Wars, we're celebrating science fiction and space in general," Mr Hunter said.

The festival will begin on Friday, May 3, at the Coonabarabran Bowling Club. Teams of three in sci-fi fancy dress will compete in a jack attack competition from 6:30pm.

The main event will be on May 4 - international Star Wars day. Throughout the day there will be a robotics competition, day time solar astronomy viewings and the opening of an astro-photography exhibition.

In the evening the aptly-named Imperial Hotel will transform into a hub for sci-fi fans, with dinner, dress ups and a show by a Van Morrison tribute act.

Throughout the weekend the local cinema club will be hosting a movie marathon featuring screenings of Flash Gordon, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Space Balls and ET.

A full rundown of events and details on where to buy tickets can be found at the 2357 Development Group's website.

Should this year's event be successful, Mr Hunter hopes it will be the start of something big.